Wizard of Avalon
by Ocean of the Moon
Summary: When the brat of Seigaku becomes blinded helping someone, the Regulars find out that there's more to their kouhai and fellow tennis players than meets the eye when they are summoned to protect their world from an ancient evil.
1. Prologue

I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever. First I got writer's block; then I was banned from because I was in my senior year at high school. I was still writing though, I just had to handwrite everything before retyping them. I'll try to do better but it might be difficult as I am in college.

Again, I'm sorry!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Prince of Tennis.

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**Wizard of Avalon**

**Prologue**

Today had been a good day for the Prince of Tennis. Ryoma thought back on the day's events. He had been able to get up early, his mom had made a Japanese breakfast for the first time in months, the teacher had actually ignored the fact that he was sleeping during class and, best of all, Inui-senpai was sick. Just the fact that the data-collector-slash-mad-scientist tennis player, or current team manager, was absent was enough for Ryoma to consider it a good day.

"Chotto…won't Inui-senpai have more time to make a couple of new juices and make them taste horrible?" Ryoma asked himself before shuddering at the thought. Honestly, couldn't Inui-senpai make a concoction that was good for the body and didn't cause nearly the whole team to pass out from the sheer taste of it? Or if he didn't, couldn't he just give it all to Fuji-senpai, the only person at Seigaku that actually liked the taste and had only fainted from one concoction out of who-knows-how-many?

The youngest Seigaku Regular then shook his head to clear it. That was like asking Momo-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai to not fight or argue for a year or at least getting Momo-senpai to stop calling Kaidoh-senpai 'Mamushi'. It was not going to happen any time soon if ever. _ 'Oh well, one could always hope.'_

Turning the corner, Ryoma heard someone yelling something about their house being on fire. Ryoma ran over to where the screaming was coming from and saw a woman yelling in front of a house that had smoke coming out the windows while others, Ryoma assumed that they were neighbors, tried to calm her down and called the fire department. Right after Ryoma had registered that, another scream was heard but this time it was coming from inside the house.

"Yuuri!" the woman screamed before trying to run past the neighbors that were blocking her from the house. The woman kept struggling but none of her neighbors would let her run back into the house. Another scream came from inside the house and Ryoma found himself dropping his tennis bag and running pass the woman's neighbors into the burning house.

All at once, the Prince of Tennis was surrounded by heat and flames. Following the screams of the child upstairs, Ryoma found a girl around five or six trying to escape the flames that were surrounding her. Ryoma quickly grabbed the girl, knowing that they had to get outside fast before they were severely burned. He ran back down the stairs as quickly as he could but the door was blocked by some fallen debris. Ryoma swore under his breath while looking for another way out. A moment later he heard something breaking before glass shattered and flew towards himself and the child. Ryoma stopped most of the glass from hitting the girl as best he could but he was cut everywhere he blocked and some of the glass still cut the girl.

Suddenly, eyes felt like there were needles in them and he screamed in pain. Seconds after he screamed two arms wrapped themselves around him and he felt himself and the girl in his arms being carried out of the burning house. People were yelling, but none of the actual words processed in Ryoma's mind. He was vaguely aware that the girl was taken from his bleeding arms and that someone was yelling for an ambulance before he fell into painless and blissful darkness.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Prince of Tennis.

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**Chapter 1: News**

Echizen Nanjiroh growled in annoyance. That gaki seishounen was late getting home. He should have been at home by 5:30 and it was now 6:30. He had both his mother, Rinko, and cousin, Meino Nanako, worried, not to mention the baka neko, Karupin. Just then the phone rang and Nanjiroh picked it up to see if it was the brat.

"Moshi moshi. Echizen residence."

"Hello, Echizen-san. I am Dr. Izumi from Sakura Hospital. I am sorry to tell you that your son has been hurt and is currently being treated."

"NANI?" the ex-Samurai yelled, startling both Rinko and Nanako. "What do you mean, Ryoma's in the hospital?"

"I meant just what you said. I was told to inform you and the rest of Ryoma's family and ask them to come to Sakura Hospital to be told of Ryoma's condition."

"Fine, we'll be there as soon as we can," Nanjiroh said as calmly as he could before hanging up. Turning to his wife and niece, her saw both of them looking even more worried than they had been minutes ago. Without saying a word all three of them left the temple grounds to go see Ryoma at Sakura Hospital.

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When the three arrived at the hospital, a doctor came up to them before he asked if they were related to Ryoma. When they answered 'yes' he asked them to follow him to his office. All of them were silent as they followed the doctor. Once they were seated in the office did Dr. Izumi begin to tell them of Ryoma's condition.

"I am glad you were able to come quickly. Allow me to explain what happened. Apparently there was a girl trapped inside of a burning house and Ryoma ran in to save her. However, the door was blocked when he tried to escape with the girl. After that, due to the heat, a window shattered and sent glass at the two. After that both Ryoma and the girl were pulled out by the firefighters. All things considered, he is alright. There was minimal smoke inhalation and the glass was easy to remove. However, some of the glass entered his eyes and did sever damage. I am very sorry to tell you this, but there is a high chance that Ryoma will be blind."

"NANI?" Nanjiroh yelled in disbelief. Rinko and Nanako looked shocked before Rinko burst into tears.

"Can we go see him?" Nanako asked the doctor while trying to calm her aunt. At the doctor's nod, the ex-Samurai and Nanako helped a sobbing Rinko out of the room to go find Ryoma.

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_**The Next Morning; Seigaku Tennis Courts**_

"Nya, Momo-chan? Did Ochibi over sleep again?" the hyperactive redhead asked the second year power player after seeing Momo arriving without the freshman regular. Momo shook his head to answer his senpai's question.

"Nope, at least I don't think so. There wasn't anyone at his house, nobody at all. I thought that his parents took him out of town."

"Hmm…There is an 85% probability of that happening but a 65% probability that Echizen would stay at home alone, if that was the case," Inui said, having overheard the two and went to scribbling in his ever present notebook. "However, there is also a 15% probability that Echizen's sick but if that was the case there is a 95% probability of him coming to practice regardless."

"Saa, I guess Echizen will just have to do all the laps that Tezuka gives him for punishment, and I'm going to guess that you're going to have Echizen try your newest juice, ne Inui?" Fuji asked the data-collector whose glasses glinted ominously as he nodded. Both Eiji and Momo shivered and pitied the freshman who was going to have to drink Inui's newest strange (not to mention dangerous to everyone but Fuji, Inui and Tezuka-buchou) drink. Before they could continue their conversation, another voice interjected itself into the conversation.

"Inui, Kikumaru, Momoshiro, Fuji, we have no time to be talking with our next match coming up in a few weeks. Get changed before doing twenty laps," Tezuka instructed as he had seen that the four were not yet ready to practice.

"But buchou…"

"Thirty laps."

"Hai buchou!" Momo and Eiji yelped before running to the clubhouse to do what Tezuka had instructed them to before the tennis captain could add any more laps. Fuji chuckled before following the two at a slower pace while Inui stayed where he was, writing in his data book and muttering something along the lines of that as the team manager he was under no requirements to run any laps when Tezuka assigned the team to run laps.

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After the Seigaku Regulars finished their warm up, and laps, the tennis coach, Ryuzaki Sumire, called them over.

"Mina-san, I have some bad news. Apparently Ryoma was injured yesterday and might be unable to play in the next match. Inui, if he cannot play in the next match, you will have to cover for him, so you will have to practice instead of telling the other members of the club what to do," Ryuzaki-sensei told them before almost all the Regulars burst into questions.

"How was he hurt? How bad is it? Is he alright?" Seigaku's mother-hen immediately questioned.

"Will he be back soon?" the currently non-burning Taka asked.

"Can we go visit him?" Eiji wondered.

"Fsssshh," was all that was heard from Kaidoh who didn't look worried when he was anxious to hear the answers.

"Is that all you can say, Mamushi? This is bad, very bad."

"Be quiet, you two!" Ryuzaki shouted at the two rivals before another fight broke out. After glaring at the two to make sure that they wouldn't start up again anytime soon, she took a deep breath to calm herself before saying, "I don't know the answers to any of your questions but I'll call Nanjiroh and ask during school. I'll tell you at afternoon practice if Nanjiroh decides to answer the questions but don't you dare slack off, got it?"

"Hai!"

"Good. Now get back to practice!"

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_**Afternoon; Seigaku Tennis Courts**_

During tennis practice that afternoon, six of the seven Regulars plus the team manager couldn't concentrate too well. Tezuka gave them all laps to do in punishment for their bad performance. None of them complained and began to run their laps. Inui didn't even complain or say that he was not required to run laps; instead he quietly joined the six Regulars in running the laps.

"Nya, Ryuzaki-sensei!" Eiji yelled, seeing the teacher before abandoning the laps Tezuka had set to see if Ryuzaki knew how the seventh grade Regular was. The other six running laps soon followed the acrobatic player's lead and abandoned their laps. Tezuka came over a moment later, after telling the non-Regulars to continue practicing.

"Did you reach Echizen-san, Ryuzaki-sensei?" Oishi asked the tennis coach after Tezuka arrived.

"Yes, I did and thankfully he answered the questions instead of yelling at me," she replied. Eiji and Momoshiro were about to explode with questions but Ryuzaki stopped them before they could start. "Let me talk before you ask any questions. But let's go to the clubhouse to discuss this."

The team nodded before following the coach into the clubhouse. All of them sat down to listen to their coach.

"Well, to begin, it seems that Ryoma was injured trying to help a girl out her house which was on fire. He received multiple burns and cuts from debris but the firefighters were able to pull both Ryoma and the girl out before they were too badly injured but he was still taken to the hospital to make sure that he's okay."

"That's good that he wasn't too injured but why is he going to miss the next match if there wasn't too much damage?"

"Oishi let me finish. But to answer your question, before the firemen could pull them out, a window shattered. The glass then flew toward the two and was embedded in their skin. They had to remove it and stitch the cuts up. Those cuts could reopen if he plays tennis and he needs to heal completely before I will let him back on the court for anything but _light_ practice. Also, after he was pulled out he fainted, so they wanted to be sure that he was alright. However, there might be some more permanent damage. From what Nanjiroh said, some of the glass entered Ryoma's eyes and…" she trailed off and Oishi guessed the worst.

"Ryuzaki-sensei…does that mean that Echizen is…" Oishi began to ask but couldn't bring himself to finish his question. Ryuzaki shook her head.

"I'm not sure, Oishi. But he there is a possibility that Ryoma will be blind."

"NANI?" the louder players yelled. All of the Regulars were shocked and immediately worried. All of them showed some reaction, even the stoic captain; Inui had dropped his notebook and pencil, Fuji's eyes were wide open in surprise, Eiji and Momo had yelled while looking as though they were hoping that was a really bad joke, while Kaidoh and Taka looked worried and a bit scared and Tezuka had allowed a shocked expression to appear in place of his poker face.

"Nya…Sensei, can we go visit Ochibi?" Eiji quietly asked once he had calmed down a little and saw that coach Ryuzaki was completely serious about the possibility of Ryoma being blind. Ryuzaki nodded.

"Yes, I thought that we could go see him after practice. Would you all like to come with myself and Sakuno?" The Regulars all nodded. "Ok. I'll call Nanjiroh and tell him that there will be ten of us coming to see Ryoma today. But for now get back to practice and meet me out by the school entrance after. If you find yourselves unable to practice, end practice early and come to the front entrance."

Slowly the Seigaku Regulars left the clubhouse to get back to practice. All of them hoped that practice would end soon, but not try to intentionally end practice early, so they could go see their injured kouhai.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Prince of Tennis.

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**Chapter 2: Hospital Visit and Eyes Revealed**

After about twenty minutes of trying, unsuccessfully, to return to tennis practice, Tezuka called out that practice was over early today. All of the non-Regulars were surprised, it wasn't everyday that Tezuka-buchou ended practice early, but began to take down nets and gather the tennis balls. All of them then left for home, and homework, except for the Regulars. Only after Oishi had locked the clubhouse up did they go to the entrance to meet coach Ryuzaki and Ryuzaki Sakuno.

Coach Ryuzaki and her granddaughter, Sakuno, were waiting at the front entrance for them. They greeted the approaching Regulars before they headed to Sakura Hospital. The trip there was unusually quiet and quick due to everyone's worry. They arrived at the hospital fairly soon and found Ryoma's parents and cousin already there.

"Kobanwa," Nanjiroh greeted the ten as they came over. The three then began to lead them to Ryoma's room. "I'm Echizen Nanjiroh, and this is my wife, Rinko, and niece, Meino Nanako. I would ask for your names but I'm going to guess that I would only get the question of if you can see Ryoma." Receiving nods from the group, he gave a small smile. These eight boys and the girl really cared about Ryoma.

Those from Seigaku hadn't realized that they were at Ryoma's room until they actually saw the boy. They were shocked. There were bandages on his face, wrapped around his arms and, worst of all, over his golden, cat-shaped eyes. He then turned toward their general direction, hearing the door open.

"Hey seishounen. How are you feeling?"

"Fine," was the given reply. Eiji had gotten over the initial shock and ran over to glomp the younger boy.

"Ooochiiibiii!" he yelled as he did so. "You are not fine! You're in a hospital and hurt and…" he continued to give reasons that he was not fine while Ryoma tried in vain to pry the acrobatic player away from him. Oishi hurried over and successfully removed the redheaded acrobat from the injured boy before the said injured boy suffocated.

"Kikumaru-senpai, don't do that! I want to get out of here as soon as possible and your glomps will keep me here longer!" the freshman yelled at the red-haired senior as soon as he regained his breath.

"That's true, senpai. You could hurt him more by glomping him. That would be bad, very bad."

"Are all the Regulars here?" Ryoma asked after hearing Momo's voice. They nodded before remembering that he couldn't see them.

"Yes we are, Echizen," Fuji answered. "And don't be mad at Eiji. He's just been worried about you. All of us were and still are."

"Fuji is right, Echizen. That was a good thing to do, saving that girl, but you were hurt so badly," Taka added gently.

"It's alright. I knew that I could get hurt when I ran in there, but I didn't expect to get hurt this badly," Ryoma said calmly still looking in their general direction.

"Why made you run in there in the first place, Ryoma?" Ryuzaki asked the boy. The freshman Regular was silent for a moment before answering.

"Because it reminded me of something that happened years ago."

"What do you mean, Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked speaking up for the first time.

"I don't want to talk about it," was the gruff answer. The others got the idea that it was a subject painful and dropped the subject, for now. Oishi voiced the question that he had been wondering since Ryoma had yelled at Eiji.

"Echizen, how long are you going to have to stay here?"

"I don't know. Oyaji, you answer." All eyes turned to Nanjiroh.

The elder Echizen was quiet for a moment before saying, "A month at the very least. More if there's any problems."

"Nya! Ochibi is going to be here that long? You're going to have a lot of make-up work and laps to do!"

"Eiji, like I said before when I told you all about Ryoma's condition, because Ryoma was severely injured, I will not have him run laps until he has been deemed completely well. And I believe that this is a good reason to miss practice and that there will be no laps for punishment," Coach Ryuzaki looked at Tezuka who nodded. "I also have an idea for how Ryoma can do his schoolwork. If one of you plans on visiting Ryoma, you can bring his homework to him. If one of you doesn't plan on visiting, I can gather his work together and give it to one of Ryoma's parents or his cousin," Ryuzaki said.

"But, Ryuzaki-sensei, how will Ryoma do the work if his eyes have to be bandaged for a month? He won't be able to read the questions or find where to write," Taka pointed out.

"Don't worry about it," Ryoma said. All eyes turned to him in question. Sensing the eyes on him, he elaborated on what he meant by saying, "Okaa-san or Nanako can read me the questions then write down the answer that I give. Then either I can give it to one of you or Okaa-san can drop it off at school."

"Saa, did you think of that when you found out that you were going to be here for a while, Echizen?" Fuji asked after the Prince of Tennis said that. The freshman smirked and nodded in answer to the tensai's question.

"Eh? Echizen you knew what to do about what to do about school work? I don't think that I could think of a solution that fast, nope, not that fast."

"Mada mada dane, Momo-senpai."

"What do you mean by that? It's _you_ that has a long way to go. A long way to go until you learn to respect your senpais!"

"Momoshiro, be quiet or its ten laps around the building," Tezuka said and the loudmouth power player shut up. The Seigaku Regulars then had to go but promised to come visit Ryoma again tomorrow and give him the work that he missed.

When saying good-bye, Ryoma said, "Inui-senpai, no juices."

Those who knew what Ryoma was talking about laughed as Inui scribbled in his notebook while those who didn't know what he was talking about just looked confused. The Regulars then walked out and the four Echizens' were left in the room. Ryoma then turned to approximately where Nanjiroh was standing.

"Oyaji, did you tell them about the possibility of me being blind?"

"I didn't say anything to them but I did tell the old hag. I don't know if she told them though. And since they didn't mention it, if they do know they might think you don't know or that you won't be able to play tennis with them again."

"I hope that I'm not. And even if I am blind, I will still play tennis. I don't want to go through what she had to put up with, I don't know if I would be able to handle it. Especially if they give me handicaps that I don't need."

"It shouldn't come to them giving you handicaps, you're too good. But, if you are blind, allow them to help you even if you don't think you need their help. We'll help you if you are blind but remember what she had to do," Rinko said.

"Hai, Okaa-san."

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_**A Month Later**_

The month had gone by quickly and it was the day that Ryoma could go home and see if he was blind. The Echizen's had requested to have the bandages removed while the Seigaku Regulars were in school. They had done so at Ryoma's request who had not wanted to be pitied, though he knew that he would be pitied later, right away. His family at least wouldn't pity him but try to help him if he was blind. As an extra precaution Nanako also went to Seigaku to get all of Ryoma's work for the next few days and told coach Ryuzaki that Ryoma was going to come home and that he would probably prefer to not have visitors for a while. Coach Ryuzaki understood the request and said that she would inform the Regulars at the afternoon practice.

When Nanako came back, the doctor was just beginning to remove the bandage around Ryoma's eyes. Once the bandages were removed, they could see that Ryoma's eyes were different than they once were. Both the pupil and iris had a cloudy sheen over them instead of being crystal clear. The doctor then did some small tests before they all realized that Ryoma was truly blind. The doctor asked them if they wanted to keep Ryoma here so that he could get used to being blind, but Nanjiroh said that they would take him home and do what they could.

Nanjiroh kept his word. Everyday Nanako, Rinko and the ex-Samurai would help Ryoma adjust to being blind. He learned quickly and was eventually able to do things with nearly the same amount of ease as he was able to before he became blind.

Ryoma stayed at home for two weeks and refused to see the Regulars who came to visit three days after he had left the hospital. Eventually, his mother decided that he should go back to school.

The day started out like usual, the Echizens telling Momo to go to practice before they woke Ryoma up to get ready for school. Once he was ready for school, Rinko drove him to school and guided him toward the main office. Nobody saw them on their way in for which Ryoma was glad about. After Rinko was done talking to the principal and telling him about Ryoma's condition, Ryoma allowed the principal guide him to his class. The principal talked to all of Ryoma's teachers and asked them to not to be too harsh on him because he wouldn't be able to do everything that the rest of the class could. While they were discussing that, Ryoma turned his head in the direction of the window and stared out, or at, it.

Soon the rest of the class came in and took their seats. They had gotten new seats and were surprised that the one empty seat next to the window in front had finally been filled in by the freshman tennis Regular. Horio had no trouble stating that.

"Oi, Echizen! When did you get back?"

"Just today. And don't yell."

"Ryoma-kun, where were you the last six weeks? The Regulars or the teachers would say where you were or why you were gone," Kachiro asked. Ryoma hadn't turned to face the three members of the tennis club and didn't really feel like answering. They had also not noticed the white cane next to him, yet, so they didn't know that he was now blind. Before he could tell Kachiro that he didn't want to say where he was, the bell rang and everyone had to take their seats.

The teacher took role and before he began the lesson, he asked Ryoma, "Echizen-san, would you like to tell the class about why you were gone for the past six weeks?"

"Not really, sensei." This had everyone confused. They had known that Ryoma had been absent for weeks and they thought that Ryoma would tell them once he was back. They looked back to the teacher, who nodded and was about to begin the lesson for the day when Osakada Tomoka asked the two questions that were on nearly everyone's mind.

"Why was Ryoma-sama gone for six weeks? And where was he?" she asked while staring at the back of the prince's head.

"Osakada-san, that is for Echizen-san to answer and he just said that he does not want to say. Respect that and do not ask me, or any of the teachers, again. Now moving on to today's lesson…"

Throughout the lesson Sakuno, Tomoka, Katsuo, Kachiro and Horio kept glancing at the Prince of Tennis. He just stared out the window. Even when their teacher told them to get out their books or to write something, he stared out of it. And even stranger, the teacher didn't say anything about it even though he must have noticed that Ryoma wasn't paying attention.

They never got the chance to talk to Ryoma during class or periods between classes. They were planning to ask him at lunch break but the teacher asked him to stay and sent them out. While they were at lunch the three boys went to ask the Regulars if they had any idea what was going on.

"Momo-chan-senpai! Do you know what's wrong with Echizen?" Horio asked the friendly second year once they found him. Momo looked at the three first year students in surprise.

"Echizen? He's at home. I didn't pick him up today for morning practice, nope, I didn't. Why are you asking?"

"Because he's in class and the teacher isn't getting mad at him even though he's not doing any of the work," Katsuo explained. Now Momo looked absolutely baffled. Just then the other Regulars came over and the freshmen trio left.

"Is something wrong Momo-chan?" Oishi asked seeing his kohai looking confused. Momo shook his head and told the other Regulars what the three ichinen had told him. All of them were surprised.

"Eh? Ochibi is back? Why didn't he come to practice?"

"That's a good question Eiji. Also, why isn't he paying attention to the lessons? I know that he likes to sleep in English since he lived in America but I don't think that he's ever just stared out the window during a lesson," Fuji added.

"Do you think that something's wrong with him?" Oishi asked worriedly remembering that he had been in the hospital for a month.

"I do not believe so. However we can go check on him later," Inui said as he looked at the clock. "I suggest that we finish our lunches soon though. The lunch break is nearly over. But we can go check on Echizen after his last class, before we go down to tennis practice." The other Regulars nodded after Inui said that. They then headed back to their classes and hoped that classes for the day would end soon.


End file.
